Word Origin & History

solitude late 14c., from O.Fr. solitude "loneliness," from L. solitudinem (nom. solitudo) "loneliness," from solus "alone" (see sole (adj.)). "Not in common use in English until the 17th c." [OED]"A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; ... if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free." [Schopenhauer, "The World as Will and Idea," 1818]

Example Sentences for solitude

Glennard felt that he could not trust himself to a winter's solitude with her.

She knew something of the fatigues, as well as the pleasures, of solitude.

And the grim little room and solitude for the end of every journey!

The silence and solitude through which they passed, at times seemed pleasing, and again almost awful.

He rambled at random with the uncertain step caused by solitude.

It made one fancy that even the mice had been exiled from this solitude.

In your Preface you say, "What would it avail me in this gloom of solitude?"

How impossible it is to realise that scene amid this solitude!

As he prayed a sense of solitude came upon him, and he realized that the shadowy aisles were empty.